It's really fun. Since it is a chamber piece, I would suggest playing it on a smaller tuba. The last several times I played it, I used a Mirafone 184, and it worked great. Today, I'd likely use an F tuba.

This is some of Norm Pearson’s best work. The whole album sounds incredible, but this track in particular shines a spotlight on his amazing playing. I waited 15+ years before getting to play the piece and had Norm’s recording echoing in my head the whole time! Highly recommended recording!

We did that here on a Chamber Series concert back in 1997 (I think) and I used my old Mirafone 180 F. An odd thing about that tuba is that it was very difficult to play it softly. Very little air equated to a LOT of sound with a LOT of projection. Breathing for this piece was nowhere near as difficult as a BBb player would assume in such a case.

And yes, at least for me, it was a lot more difficult than the Sensemaya excerpts, however, page 2 of Sensemaya is a lot more difficult than the well-known excerpts, too. Most people do not know just how hairy that second page can be if you are actually playing the rhythms correctly. Easy to fake, hard to play accurately. Both Sensemaya and the Homenaje are works worth knowing.

Here is the part in case some of you would like to follow the LAPO recording...

Homenaje — pronounced "oh-meh-NAH-hay" for those who are not good with pronunciation of Spanish words...